BK: Having it your way

Photo credit:
“Welcome to the Variety Playhouse, may I take your order?”

“Uh, yes. I’ll have the pop-star combo No. 3 with the extra-catchy sing-along sauce. For here.”

When Ben Kweller, aka BK, plays a show, which he did twice this week in Atlanta, toes tap, young girls swoon and the whole crowd sings along. Kweller’s got a knack for the kind of pop that made teenyboppers scream at Beatles shows. But he’s not formulaic; he’s for real, writing clever and heartfelt (if sometimes a little sappy) lyrics.

At Tuesday night’s Variety Playhouse performance, Kweller bounced around on stage, curly locks flopping, as infected by his melodic do do dos and ba ba bas as the crowd was. He did a rocking acoustic cover of the inescapable “Ice Ice Baby” (what is it with my generation and that song?) and picked a bit of the Deliverance theme — OK choices, but not as exciting as his “La Bamba”/“Twist & Shout”/“Undone (the Sweater Song)” trio at Sunday’s Unplugged in the Park.

The set list contained ditties from all three full-length albums, including “Commerce, TX” (Sha Sha), “I Need You Back” (On My Way) and “Thirteen” (Ben Kweller).

(Photo by Ray Lego)